Ferrari raised intrigue Wednesday after it said its CEO, Luca di Montezemolo, met with the top executives of Apple and Google. As part of a trip to Stanford University, he met with the "heads of Google" as well as Apple CEO Tim Cook. While the details weren't mentioned, the supercar company mentioned that di Montezemolo had a two-hour "face-to-face meeting" in which they talked about common ground.
Thrustmaster has unveiled the most technically complex steering wheel for gaming systems yet. Its Ferrari F1 Wheel Add-on is a full-size replica of the Ferrari Formula 1 2011 racing wheel that is used in Fernando Alonso’s F1 racing car. It is designed to be used with the Thrustmaster T500 RS which is purchased separately.
Aston Martin has beaten Apple to the top spot on annual CoolBrands UK rankings for a second year in a row, the BBC notes. CoolBrands' charts are based on a mix of public polling and opinions taken from marketers and business people. Aston Martin's win is thought to be linked with James Bond, since the movie spy's most popular cars have typically been DB5s or DBSs.
Hasselblad today shipped the H4D-40 Ferrari Limited Edition. The special run medium format camera previewed earlier costs roughly in line with others in its class, at $29,499. Its launch strategy mimics that of the Ferrari Enzo and will see just 499 cameras sold with an 80mm lens.
Hasselblad swept through a series of new medium format camera systems at the Photokina show along with a tease of a 200-megapixel camera next year. The H4D-31 is one of the company's cheapest ever complete cameras and shoots at 31 megapixels while still sharing all the features of the larger models, including the off-center focusing adjustment that defines the H4D line. It will cost 9,995 euros ($13,416) with either an 80mm prime lens or a CF-mount lens adapter to use existing Hasselblad optics.
At Computex on Tuesday, Acer UK showed off a Ferrari edition of its Liquid e smartphone. The phone sports a signature Ferrari Red paint and Scuderia Ferrari crest, along with chrome trim and carbon fiber accents. The phone also gets Ferrari wallpaper for each of its five home pages, a special set of ringtones that includes a Ferrari engine and F1-related images and videos.
Thrustmaster today introduced its Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition gaming controller cockpit for PCs and the PS3. The 11-inch steering wheel is a smaller scale replica of that found in the lightweight F430 Scuderia supercar, and includes the 5-position Manettino dial that can change the car's performance characteristics during a race. Metal gearshift paddles and a rubber textured grip of the wheel are more authentic touches. The brake pedal has magnetic resistance for a more realistic feel as well.
Acer on Wednesday announced it is now shipping its 11.6-inch Ferrari One notebook to US customers. Considered a crossover between netbooks and full-size notebooks, its rocessing power comes from a relatively strong 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, along with up to 4GB of RAM. The 250GB, 5,400rpm hard drive is preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium.
Acer Thursday updated its Ferrari notebooks with the Ferrari 1200. The 12-inch portable is the third generation of the notebook and keeps the carbon fiber, F1-themed shell but updates to a newer AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor and gets a newer mainboard platform that includes faster Mobility Radeon video. It continues to sport an LED-backlit display and holds as much as 4GB of DDR2 memory in higher-end trim.
Acer on Thursday brought out the US version of the G24, a 24-inch LCD the company claims has the highest contrast ratio to date. The announcement was made at the same time as the company introduced its Predator gaming PC system, naming the G24 its ideal companion. The widescreen 1920x1200 display uses dynamic picture adjustment to reportedly reach a TV-like 50,000:1 contrast level and also touts a claimed 2ms gray-to-gray pixel response time suited to gaming.
